The Art Newspaper, for which I wrote a recent article about the book Modern Women, part of the Women’s Project at the Museum of Modern Art, is continuing its coverage of women artists: In today’s special edition of the paper at Art Basel, it tracks the dearth of women artists at booths at the fair, which is generally considered the best contemporary fair in the world.
“The top 40 most represented artists on show at the fair are all men,” the story says. It’s topped, no surprise, by Andy Warhol, then Picasso, then Calder (?), and… see the chart here.
Here is one explanation:
Dealers say that the imbalance can be partly explained by prices. Male artists continue to fetch the biggest sums at galleries and at auction. “Is it true that a Brice Marden drawing is a zillion times more expensive than a comparable work by a woman artist? Yes,” said Barry Rosen, who advises the estates of Eva Hesse and Lee Lozano. …
The fact that male artists command bigger prices also precludes some collectors from considering works by female artists. “It’s not only because they are women,” said Monika Sprüth of Sprüth Magers, which is showing a number of female artists on their stand (B12). “There are certain kinds of speculators in the art world who pride themselves on price, and this tends to favour certain male artists.”
Catch-22.
The two women with the most work for sale at Art Basel are Louise Bourgeois (her work at Cheim and Read is above) and Joan Mitchell.
How are women artists going to enter collections if they’re not on view in the biggest single, one-stop-shopping arena for high-quality art?
Read the entire story here.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Cheim & Read, via The Art Newspaper